Open shed double lift-jacquard machine

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed an open shed double lift-Jacquard loom, comprising lifting blades and open shed blades, a plurality of rod means each possessing two resilient leg members positioned to cooperate with said blades. Each leg member is equipped with two tongues respectively cooperating with an associated lifting blade and open shed blade, and a drive mechanism and guide means provided for the open shed blades serves to move said open shed blades alternately at an inclination up and down with respect to said rod means, so that the rod means remaining in the open shed position always come into engagement with an associated open shed blade. Punching needles are arranged transverse to the leg members of the rod means for selectively acting upon the individual leg members, and guide rails are associated with the leg members of the rod means. The guide rails are movable transverse to said leg members and act alternately upon the free ends of said leg members, said guide rails retaining the leg members of said rod means remaining in the upper shed position in an engaged position with the associated lifting blades thereof at the side of the associated lifting blade which is ascending into the upper position. There is also provided guide rail-drive means for moving said guide rails prior to reaching the upper position of the upwardly moving lifting blades towards such associated upwardly moving lifting blades and away from the lifting blades moving downwardly.

United States Patent Horak 1 June 13, 1972 [54] OPEN SHED DOUBLE LIFT-JACQUARD MACHINE [72] Inventor: Heinz Horak, Huttwil, Switzerland [73] Assignee: Apparatefabrik AG Huttwil, Hutwill,

Bern, Switzerland [22] Filed: Feb. 16, 1971 [2]] Appl. N0.: 115,465

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 19, 1970 Switzerland ..2358/70 [52] U.S. Cl ..l39/63, 139/68 [51] Int. Cl ..D03c 3/08 [58] Field ofSearch ..139/59, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 900,948 10/1908 Perrin ..139/63 2,942,626 6/1960 Dracup et al.. .....l39/63 3,529,635 9/1970 Horak ..l39/59 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 879,458 10/1961 Great Britain ..l39/63 Primary Examiner-Henry S. .laudon [5 7] ABSTRACT There is disclosed an open shed double lift-Jacquard loom, comprising lifting blades and open shed blades, a plurality of rod means each possessing two resilient leg members positioned to cooperate with said blades. Each leg member is equipped with two tongues respectively cooperating with an associated lifting blade and open shed blade, and a drive mechanism and guide means provided for the open shed blades serves to move said open shed blades alternately at an inclination up and down with respect to said rod means, so that the rod means remaining in the open shed position always come into engagement with an associated open shed blade. Punching needles are arranged transverse to the leg members of the rod means for selectively acting upon the individual leg members, and guide rails are associated with the leg members of the rod means. The guide rails are movable transverse to said leg members and act alternately upon the free ends of said leg members, said guide rails retaining the leg members of said rod means remaining in the upper shed position in an engaged position with the associated lifting blades thereof at the side of the associated lifting blade which is ascending into the upper position. There is also provided guide rail-drive means for moving said guide rails prior to reaching; the upper position of the upwardly moving lifting blades towards such associated upwardly moving lifting blades and away from the lifting blades moving downwardly.

4 Claims, 23 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUH 1 s 1912 SHEET 10F 6 INVENTDR HE/NZ HOE/7K I/ERMM Mk1. 55/14 FIT/'0 ENE y Q S x N v Q E Q .& 3 mm Q mm mm m N. %v mm w E &

PATENTEDJUH 13 m2 SHEET L [1F 6 w m a a a a MM d 1/ n II F w v w y. :t l if! 0 M 8 u 7 n E m u ,0 m n z a u M Vw AI. M I L 10 C /O P.

INVENT R HEM/.2 Ira/99k OPEN SHED DOUBLE LIFF-JACQUARD MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a new and improved open shed double lift-Jacquard machine of the type incorporating rods or bars each possessing two resilient legs, each leg of which is equipped with two tongues cooperating with a lifting blade or knife or an open shed blade or knife, respectively, a drive mechanism and guide means are provided for the open shed knives for moving the open shed knives alternately at an inclination up and down with respect to the rods, so that those given rods which are intended to remain in the open shed always come into engagement with an associated open shed blade and with punching needles arranged transverse to the legs of the rods for selectively acting upon the individual legs.

An open shed double lift-Jacquard machine is already known to the art which is of the type incorporating bars or rods possessing two resilient legs, at least one hook member being provided at each leg, which can cooperate both with a lifting blade as well as also with open shed blades or knives. Also, in this arrangement, a drive mechanism and guide means are provided for the open shed blades which move these blades up and down at an inclination in thrust-like fashion during the lifting blade movement, so that the open shed blade always deviates at the side of the ascending lifting blade, whereas the open shed blade at the other side moves into a preparatory position to allow the rod leg which has not been displaced by the punching needles to be engaged and to thus retain the rods in the open shed position.

This known construction possesses the drawback that the hook cooperating with the open shed blade must be displaced away from such open shed blade during ascent so that after it has moved past the effective edge of the open shed blade it can spring back and engage with the open shed blade. During the ascending movement, the upper side of the hook not in engagement with the lifting blade always impacts against the lower side of an open shed blade which, in turn, causes noise, and furthermore, is associated with great material wear.

A further considerable drawback resides in the following: The legs of those rods which do not remain in the open shed position, rather should move down, are deflected by the action of the punching needles so that they cannot be suspended in the open shed blade. This action of the punching needle, however, must last for such time until the hook of the descending rod has moved past the ascending blade, otherwise the rod will be again upwardly entrained by the blade. Firstly, this results in the punching needles and rod legs grinding against one another over more than half of the lifting path, producing further excessive wear and, secondly, the relatively long duration of the action of the punching needles is lost for preparing the next successive needle function. In other words, as long as the punching needles do not return back into their starting position, it is impossible to either further index the Jacquard card or to prepare a needle selection by means of electromagnets.

All of these aforementioned drawbacks constitute a reason why the operating speed of these known Jacquard machines cannot be appreciably increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved type of open shed double lift-Jacquard machine which effectively and reliably overcomes the afore mentioned drawbacks of the prior art constructions.

Another and more specific object of the present invention relates to the provision of an open shed double lift-Jacquard machine which does not display the previously mentioned drawbacks and which functions faultlessly at increased operating speed in relation to the heretofore known Jacquard machines of this type.

Now, in order to implement these and still further objects of the invention which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the inventive open shed double lift- Jacquard machine is manifested by the features that there are provided guide rails operativelyassociated with the legs of the rods or bars, and these guide rails are movable transverse to the legs and alternately act upon the free ends of such legs. Such guide rails, in each case, retain at the side of the lifting blade ascending into the elevated position, the legs of the rods which have remained in the upper shed position in an engaged position with such lifting blade. Additionally, there is provided guide rail-drive means for moving the guide rails towards the upwardly moving lifting blade prior to such lifting blade reaching its raised or upper position and for moving such guide rails away from the downwardly moving lifting blade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above, will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary sectional view of an open shed double lift-Jacquard machine, illustrating only the most important components thereof necessary for understanding the inventive concepts;

FIG. 2 is a side view of an apparatus for selecting the punching needles which are to be actuated and for impacting same;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a drive mechanism for the open shed blades or knives of the Jacquard machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4a to FIG. 4e depict movement graphs for the different movable components, such as the lifting blades, the open shed blades, the retaining rails, the impact rails and the needle plates;

FIG. 5a to FIG. 5f is a schematic view of a rod or bar depicting its diflerent positions with respect to the remaining movable components of the Jacquard machine; and

FIG. 6a to FIG. 6f illustrates the same rod of FIG. 5a to FIG. 5f in further different positions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS dem, so that the entire Jacquard machine contains 240 of such rods 3.

Each rod 3 which is located in its rest position, and specifically in FIG. 1 this pertains to the first two rods at the left,

bears upon a stationary impact or contact plate 4. At each widened transverse piece 5 of each rod there are provided two holes 6 for suspension of the neck cords 7. Although a number of cords 7 can be attached to one rod 3, for the sakeof simplicity in illustration FIG. 1 only shows a single cord 7 for each rod or bar 3. Further, each rod 3 possesses two upwardly directed leg members 8 and 9 which are pre-biased outwardly and, accordingly, possess the tendency of spreading apart away from the lifting blades or knives l0 and l 1.

At the inside of the leg members 8 and 9 there are provided two respective tongues 12 and 13. The lower tongues 13 are destined to cooperate with the lifting blades 10 or 11 and the upper tongues 12 are destined to cooperate with the open shed blades or knives 14 or 15. At the region of the free ends of the leg members 8 and 9 there are located stationary impact or contact rods 16 to prevent the pre-biased leg members 8, 9 from spacing apart beyond a permissible extent.

The distance between two impact or stop rods 16 is so large that the lifting blades 10 and 11 and the open shed blades 14 and 15 can move past the tongues 13 and 12, respectively, without influencing the rods 3. At the lower are guided in non-illustrated grids, so that they only can move region the rods 3 up and down. The upper portions of the legs or leg members 8 and 9 are guided between the punching needles 1 and 2, so that they cannot tip over.

The lifting blades or knives 10 and 11 are alternately raised and lowered due to the driving action of a non-illustrated drive mechanism. In FIG. 1, the lifting blade 10 at the left side thereof is illustrated in its lower position and the lifting blade 11 at the right-hand side thereof is illustrated in its elevated or raised position. The left-side located open shed blade 14, in relation to the showing of FIG. 1, can move from the left at the top towards the right at the bottom and vice versa, and the open shed blade 15, located at the right-hand side, can move from the lower left upwardly towards the right, and vice versa.

In FIG. I, the open shed blade 14 is located exactly in the leftupper position and the open shed blade 15 in the left-lower position. All movements of the blades designated by the same reference characters are carried out in synchronism.

The drive mechanism for the open shed blades or knives l4 and 15 is illustrated in greater detail in FIG. 3. All of the open shed blades 14 are coupled via webs 17 with transverse struts 18 which, in turn, retain two lengthwise extending elements 19, of which only one has been shown, at a spacing from one another. Each lengthwise extending element 19 is connected with the Jacquard machine via two intermediate elements 20 which, in turn, are pivotable about a pin 21 at the lengthwise extending element and, on the other hand, about a pin 22 at a stationary portion of the Jacquard machine. At the right-side located end face 23 of the lengthwise extending element 19 there bears a contact roll 24 which through the agency of a double-arm lever 25, pivotable about a shaft or axis 26, transmits pivotable movements from a cam 27 to this lengthwise extending or longitudinal element 19. A spring 28 secured to the lengthwise element 19 draws such downwardly so that the end surface 23 of this lengthwise element is pressed against the contact or impact roll 24.

Corresponding to the rotation of the cam 27, the lengthwise element 19 will be displaced from the lefttop towards the right bottom, and vice versa, as indicated by the arrow 29 and along a circular arc, the radius of which-is defined by the distance between the pins 21 and 22 of the intermediate element or member 20. These movements are performed by all the open shed blades 14 since they are coupled via the web 17 and the transverse struts 18 with the lengthwise element 19.

All of the open shed blades 15 are connected via webs 17 and transverse struts 18 with two lengthwise elements 19, of which only one has been illustrated. The lengthwise element 19' is hingedly connected, and it might be mentioned in a similar fashion as the lengthwise element 19, via intermediate members 20' and pins 21 and 22 with the non-illustrated sta tionary portion of the Jacquard loom. Starting from the cam 27, the lengthwise element 19 has imparted thereto a movement, as such has been schematically indicated by the arrow 29', and specifically through the agency of the double-arm lever and the contact roll 24' against the action of spring 28. Accordingly, the open shed blades or knives 15 can move from the bottom left towards the top right, and vice versa, when cam 27' rotates.

The shafts 30 and 30, upon which both cams 27 and 27, respectively, are secured, rotate with the same speed. The cams 27 and 27, however, are offset with regard to one another so that the movements of the open shed blades 14 and 15 does not occur simultaneously.

Furthermore, by again inspecting FIG. 1 it will be seen that there is provided a frame 31 equipped with protruding guide rails 32 and 33 at its underside and this frame is located above the open shed blades 14 and 15. Frame 31 and the guide rails 32 and 33 are displaceable in a non-illustrated guide transverse to the legs 8 and 9 and are driven by rollers and 35, respectively, bearing against both frontal or end faces 34 and 34', respectively. The movement of these rollers 35 and 35' is controlled through the agency of the double-arm levers 36 and 36' through the action of earns 37 and 37, respectively. Cams 37 and 37' are preferably arranged at the same shafts 30 and 30', respectively, as the cams 27 and 27', respectively, employed for actuation of the open shed blades 14 and 15. These cams 37 and 37 are in offset relationship with respect to one another such that the rollers 35 and 35' simultaneously either move towards the right or towards the left.

In the position illustrated in FIG. 1, the guide rails 32 and 33 are located at the left-terminal position. The inner faces or sides 38 of the guide rails 32 are located in the same plane as the contact or impact surfaces 39 of the impact members or rods 16. On the other hand the inside surfaces 40 of the other respective guide rails 33 are displaced through the distance or path 42 through which there can be moved the guide rails 33. (period) Consequently, these inside surfaces 40 of the guide rails 33 are displaced with respect to the stop surfaces 41 of the stop or impact rods 16 facing towards the inside of the leg members 8 and 9 by an amount corresponding to this distance or path 42. In the other right-side terminal position of the guide rails the situation is reversed, that is, the inner surfaces 40 of the guide rails 33 are then located in the same plane as the stop or contact surfaces 41 of the impact rods 16 and the inner surfaces 38 of the guide rails 32 extend into the space between the associated leg members 8 and 9.

The punching needles I bear upon transverse extending rods 43 and the punching needles 2 upon transverse extending rods 44. These transverse rods simultaneously serve as impact or stop means for blocks 45 which are rigidly coupled with the punching needles, and limit the displacement movement of such needles. These transverse rods consist preferably of TEFLO in order to reduce frictional forces and noise.

The ends 46 and 46' of the needles 1 and 2 which protrude further past the transverse rods 43 and 44, respectively, are thickened or enlarged, and under the action of compression springs 48 and 48, respectively, bear upon likewise thickened or enlarged ends 49 and 49', respectively, of preliminary or pre-needles 50 and 50, respectively. These preliminary needles are components of a mechanism 51 (FIG. 2) for selecting the punching needles which are to be actuated, which mechanism 51 will be described more fully hereinafter in conjunction with FIG. 2. Each needle 1 and 2 possesses an entrainment nose member 52 in order, when necessary, to press leg members 8 or 9 against the associated lifting blade, as such for instance has been demonstrated in the case of leg member 8 of the first rod 3 viewed from the left of FIG. 1.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated therein the above-mentioned mechanism 51 for selecting the punching needles 2 which are to be actuated. A similar mechanism with preliminary or pre-needles 50 is located at the left-side of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 and serves to actuate the punching needles 1.

A needle mechanism 54 is rigidly connected via a support ortion 53 with the Jacquard machine. The needle mechanism 54 is pierced by the preliminary needles 50, and the tapered or narrowed ends 55 of the preliminary needles extend out of the needle mechanism 54. Each preliminary needles has operably associated therewith a retaining or holding needle 56 equipped with a non-illustrated cam. The associated preliminary needles bear upon such non-illustrated cam.

The upper ends of the retaining or holding needles 56 are located at the interior of a respective coil or winding 57 which has only been illustrated in one instance, winding 57 having electrical leads 57a and being accommodated in a suitable bore 58 of a block 59. In the middle of the coil or winding 57 there is fixedly arranged a soft iron core 60. Directly above the soft iron core 60 there is located a rod-shaped permanent magnet 61. The associated holding needle 56 is attracted by this permanent magnet 61 and retained in its upper position.

Beneath the holding or retaining needles 56 there is located a needle board or plate 62 driven to move up and down. A brief current flow through the winding 57 during the time when the needle board or plate 62 carries out the first-third of its downward movement and in a manner that a magnetic field is built-up which opposes the permanent magnet 61, causes the relevant retaining or holding needle 56, owing to its inherent weight and the weight of the reliminary needle 50, which bears upon such via the non-illustrated cams of the holding needles 56, to follow the downward movement of the needle plate 62 and in the lowest position thereof will bear thereupon, whereas the tapered end 55 of the preliminary needle 50 will come to bear against an impact rail 63. This contact or impact rail 63 possesses an impact or stop surface 64 which acts upon the end face'or surface of the tapered end 55 of the preliminary needle 50. Corresponding to the four superimposed arranged preliminary needles 50 there are likewise provided four superimposed arranged impact rails 63. These impact rails are attached to an angle lever 65 which, in turn, is pivotable about a shaft 66. At the other end of the angle lever 65 there is arranged a follower roll 68 cooperating with a cam 67, in order to move the impact rails 63, against the action of a tension spring 69, at the appropriate moment towards the preliminary needles 50. As a result, the selected preliminary needles 50, that is to say, those which are no longer retained by the permanent magnets 61, are moved towards the left.

The needle board or plate 62 is attached to an angle lever 70 pivotable about the axis or shaft 26. At the other end of this angle lever 70 there is arranged a follower roller 72 cooperating with a cam 71. This roll or roller 72 is pressed through the action of the inherent weight of the needle plate 62 against the cam 71. After the impact rails 63 have performed their impact motion, they again return back into the starting position of FIG. 2, and thereafter the needle plate 62 is raised by means of cam 71. This causes all of the retaining or holder needles 56 bearing upon the needle plate 62 to be advanced towards their associated soft iron cores 60 and retained by the permanent magnet 61, or, however, with the winding 57 energized can again be released. Due to the upward movement of the holder needles 56 all of the preliminary needles 50 arrive back into their starting position.

The cam 67 for actuating the impact rails 63 and the earns 71 for lifting the needle board or plate 62 are arranged upon the same shaft 30, at which there is already secured the cams 27 for actuating the open shed blades 15 and the cams 37 for displacing the guide rails 32 and 33. As a result, the individual movements are positively dependent upon one another and the course of the movements are correlated or matched in time to one another.

The course of the movements have been graphically represented in FIGS. 4a to 4e as a function of the angle of rotation 04 of the drive shaft, wherein FIG. 4e only depicts the angle of rotation 04 in degrees. FIG. 4a illustrates the essentially harmonic up and down movements of the counter-moving lifting blades or knives l0 and 11. Along the ordinate of these graphs there is plotted the stroke or lift. The full-line curve 73 illustrates the course of movement of a lifting blade and the dotted-line curve 74 illustrates the course of movement of a lifting blade 11. During one revolution of the drive shaft, each lifting blade once assumes its raised position and once its lowered position.

FIG. 4b illustrates the course of movement of the open shed blades or knives 14 and 15. The full-line curve 75 represents the movement of an open shed blade 14 and the dotted-line curve 76 represents the movement of an open shed blade 15. From this representation it will be apparent that the open shed blades 14 and I5 do not move simultaneously at any given time, rather after one of theblades has moved upwardly at an inclination the other has moved downwardly at an inclination, and at no period of time are both open shed blades simultaneously in the lower position.

FIG. 40 illustrates the movement of the guide rails 32 and 33 which move simultaneously and in the same direction because they are rigidly coupled with the frame 3]. Along the ordinate of this graph there is plotted at the top thereof (r) the displacement of the guide rails towards the right and at the lower region of such graph ordinate the displacement towards the left (I), the directions left" and right being considered with regard to the illustration of FIG. 1. The guide rails 32 and 33 therefore, during one complete revolution of the drive shaft,

are displaced once from the left towards the right and then back again.

In FIG. 4d there are plotted the movements of the impact rails 63. The full-line curve 77 illustrates the movement of the impact rails which are not illustrated in the drawings, and the dotted-line curve 78 illustrates the movements of the impact rails 63 depicted in FIG. 2. The impact rails arranged at both sides of the Jacquard machine are altematingly actuated one respective time for each complete revolution of the drive shaft.

FIG. 4e illustrates the movement of the needle board or plate 62 associated with each mechanism 51 for selecting the punching needles, which needle board or plate 62,011 the one hand, during such time as the holding or retaining needles 56 descend, and the magnetic windings of which are excited, force a harmonic dropping movement, and, on the other hand, upon raising of these holding needles past the soft iron cores 60 again bring such back so that the holding needles 56, during this entire course of movement, remain in contact with the needle plate 62 and in this manner prevent free dropping and impact of such holding needles against the needle board or plate. The full-line curve 79 belongs to the non-illustrated mechanism 51 and the dotted-line curve80 belongs to the needle plate 62 illustrated in FIG. 2.

In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 the individual components have been shown in that position corresponding to the angle of rotation a 270.

Now, in conjunction with FIGS. 5a to 5f and 6a to 6f, there will hereinafter be described the function of the above-explained doublelift open shed-Jacquard loom, whereby in all of these Figures, there has only been schematically illustrated the one rod or bar 3 together with the components which act directly thereupon.

In the lower shed position of the rod 3 illustrated in FIG. 5a which, for instance, corresponds to the position of the rod illustrated in the showing of FIG. 1 at the second position from the left, the transverse piece or element 5 bears against the impact plate 4. The free ends of both outwardly biased leg members 8 and 9 bear against the stop or contact surfaces 39 and 41, respectively, situated opposite one another, of the stationary contact or stop rods 16. The hooks 13 of the leg members 8 and 9 are spaced such an extent from one another that the lifting blades 10 and 11 can move up and down without contacting such hooks 13. The rod 3 thus remains, in the absence of any further external influence, in the lower shed position, independent of whether the lifting blades move up and down. The positions of the lifting blades, the open shed blades and the guide rails corresponds to the angle of rotation at 270.

Now, if the rod 3 should reach the upper shed position, then, at that period of time which corresponds to the angle of rotation at 270, the leg member 8 is pressed, owing to the action of the therewith associated punching needle 1, against the lifting blade 10 which is now in the process of moving from its lower position towards its upper position. Consequently, the edge of the lifting blade 10 moves beneath the tongue 13 of the leg member 8 as such has been illustrated in FIG. 5b. The lower edge of the tongue 13 is inclined towards the inside and bears, after it has completed its contact, against the likewise inwardly inclined surface of the lifting blade 10. Owing to these inclined surfaces, the hook 13 remains in engagement with the lifting blade or knife 10, also then when the needle 1 no longer is pressed against the leg member 8. Therefore, it is sufficient if the entrainment nose 52 of the punching needle 1 is only briefly pressed against the leg member 8 until the rod 3 has been slightly raised by the lifting blade 10. During this time, the leg member 8 has only moved slightly, and the frictional losses brought about by contact of the entrainment nose 52 with the leg member 8 are relatively small.

FIG. 5c illustrates a further phase of the upward movement of the rod or bar 3. This Figure illustrates the position of the individual components, corresponding to the angle of rotation a 360 or 0. The lifting blades or knives 10 and 11 are located at the same elevational position, and therefore the rod 3 has moved through half the distance between the lower shed position and the upper shed position. The likewise upwardly moving tongue 13 of the leg member 9 passes the edge of the downwardly moving lifting blade 11 without contacting such, because the free end of the leg member 9 bears against the impact or contact surface 41 of the contact rod 16. Shortly prior to reaching this central position, the open shed knife 15 has moved from the dotted-line indicated position into the fullline indicated position from the lower-left at an inclination upwardly towards the right.

At this period of time the guide rail 33 is located directly above the leg member 9. At a time prior to the free end of this leg member 9 being able to contact against the guide rail 33 such is displaced towards the right, as has been indicated by the showing of FIG. 5d. The position illustrated therein corresponds to the angle of rotation of the drive shaft of a 60. The lifting blade which is raising and which is in engagement with the tongue 13 of the leg member 8 has not yet completely reached its raised position. The tongue 12 has just passed the edge of the open shed blade or knife 14 in that shortly before such has been moved from the upper left towards the lower right and has freed the path or passage for tongue 12. The free leg ends arrive without obstruction between both guide rails 32 and 33. Although the inner width between the guide rails is slightly larger than the spacing of the outer surfaces of the leg members, the oppositely situated inner surfaces of the guide rails are tapered or bevelled, so that the leg ends or terminal portions can be positively raised between the guide rails.

FIG. 5c shows the rod 3 in the upper shed position corresponding to an angle of rotation a 90. The lifting blade 10 is located in the upper position and the lifting blade 11 in the lower position. The tongue 13 of the leg member 8 is still in engagement with the lifting blade 10. When, at this period of time, no further forces act upon the rod or bar 3, then such will be entrained by the lifting blade 10 to again assume its lower shed position.

On the other hand, if however during this period of time the leg member 9 is pressed against the lifting blade 11 owing to the action of the entrainment nose 52 of the associated punching needle 2, as such has been represented in FIG. Sf; then the tongue 12 of the leg member 9 comes into engagement with the open shed blade when the lifting blade 10 begins to lower. The rod 3 then only drops by about I to 2 millimeters. As soon as the tongue 12 of the leg member 9 has come into engagement with the open shed blade 15, then, the needle 2 actuating the leg member 9 has terminated its operation and is again moved back. During this brief time period, the leg member 9 has hardly displaced in relation to the entrainment nose 52 of the needle 2, so that only relatively negligible frictional losses appear at this contact location.

The command for the rod or bar 3 to remain in the open shed position must always be transmitted to the free legs 8 or 9, which are not in engagement with one of the lifting blades or knives. Since now in the next movement phase the lifting blade 11 ascends and then is brought into engagement with the leg member 9 it is previously necessary for the other open shed blade 14 to assume support of the rod 3 in the open shed position. For this purpose, according to the illustration of FIG. 6a, the open shed knife 14 is displaced from the lower right towards the upper left, whereby it comes into engagement with the tongue 12 of the leg member 8 since the guide rail 32 retains this leg member in preparatory position. The position depicted in FIG. 6a corresponds to an angle of rotation a 180. The lifting blade or knife 10 which is lowering and the lifting blade or knife 11 which is raising are located at the same elevational position or height and the rod 3 simultaneously is suspended at both open shed blades 14 and 15, as shown.

After the tongue 12 of the leg member 8 has come into engagement with the open shed blade 14, the guide rails 32 and 33 are displaced towards the left and the open shed blade 15 moves from the top right towards the lower left, as best observed by referring to FIG. 6b. The leg member 9 is held or retained by the guide rail 33 so that the ascending lifting knife 11, shortly prior to attaining its raised position, can engage with the tongue 13 of the leg member 9. A further phase of the ascending movement of the lifting knife 11 has been illustrated in FIG. 60, the positions of the individual components corresponding to an angle of rotation a= 225.

FIG. 6d illustrates the lifting blade 11 in its raised or elevated position, corresponding to an angle of rotation at 270. The lifting blade 11 has raised the leg 9 by means of the tongue 13 by about 1 to 2 millimeters so that the tongue 12 of the leg member 8 is lifted off of the open shed blade 14. The leg member 8, owing to its pre-stress or pre-bias, has moved from the dotted-line position into the full-line position up to the stop or impact surface 41 of the contact rod 16. If, during this period of time the associated punching needle has not been actuated, then the rod 3 simultaneously moves into its lower shed position together with the lifting blade 11, the tongue 13 of the leg member 8 moving without contact past the upwardly moving lifting blade or knife 10.

If the associated punching needle 1, however, is actuated, as such has been illustrated in FIG. 6e, then the tongue 12 of the leg member 8 assumes a position above the open shed blade 14, so that upon subsequent lowering of the lifting blade 11, the rod 3 once again remains suspended at the open shed blade 14 and further remains in the open shed position.

Now, the lifting blade 10 again ascends and upon reaching its elevated or upper position engages with the tongue 13 of the leg member 8. The next command concerning remaining of the rod 3 in the open shed position or the lowering of the rod into the lower shed position can, accordingly, only be transmitted to the leg member 9. Therefore, it is necessary to now suspend the rod 3 prior to reaching the raised position of the lifting blade 11 from the open shed blade 14 at the open shed knife 15. To this end according to the showing of FIG. 6f, at an angle of rotation at 350, the open shed knife 15 is moved from the lower left towards the upper right, so that it can come into engagement with the tongue 12 of the leg member 9. Thereafter the guide rails 32 and 33 are displaced towards the right and the open shed blade 14 is moved from the upper left towards the lower right. These last-mentioned movements can be b est seen by referring to FIG. 5d.

If then, during an angle of rotation at the leg member 8 is not pressed against the lifting blade 11, then the rod or bar 3 drops with the lifting blade 10 into the lower shed position. Shortly prior to the time that the lifting blade 11 has reached its lower position, the rod 3 seats upon the contact or impact plate 4 and the lifting blade 11 upon reaching its lower position releases the hook 13 of the leg member 8, and this leg member 8 resiliently biases outwards until its free end bears against the contact surface 41 of the contact rod or rail 16. Consequently, the bar 3 has reached that starting position which is represented in FIG. 5a.

In accordance with what has been discussed above, it will be recognized that it is a function of the guide rails 32 and 33 to retain in a preparatory position the tongue 13 of the momentarily free leg member 8 or 9 of the rod or bar 3 located in the open position for engagement by the ascending lifting blade 10 or 11, and additionally, to render possible the transfer of the rod 3 located in the upper shed position from one open shed blade 14 or 15 to the other.

In all Jacquard machines the hooks, which here correspond to the tongues 12 and 13, as well as the liftingand open shed blades, are subjected to the greatest loads. With the abovedescribed Jacquard machine, during no operating phase does there occur a sliding snapping-over of the tongues past the edges of the blades or knives. The tongues are only first brought into their engaged or contact position after passing the blades or knives, to that during the actual engaging operation no sharp edges, rather the bevelled surfaces of the tongues and the blades bear upon one another. Consequently, the wear of these components is considerably reduced.

The only elements or components which sometimes slide upon one another during operation of the machine are the outer surfaces of the free ends of the leg members 8 and 9, the contact or impact surfaces 41 of the contact rails or rods 16 and the inside surfaces of the guide rails 32 and 33. The guide rails and the contact rods therefore can preferably be equipped with an abrasion resistant plastic coating or cover which, additionally then, suppresses the build-up of noise.

Since the leg members 8 and 9 are brought against their biasing or tensioning force into the engaged position, either by the associated punching needles 1 or 2 or the guide rails 32 and 33, they have much less tendency to oscillate, that is, they operate much more reliably. Additionally, the contact movement of the punching needles 1 or 2 extends throughout approximately l of the crank angle, so that for the raising and lowering of the needle board or plate 62, according to FIG. 42, there is available 240 of the crank angle, corresponding to two-thirds of a revolution. In contrast thereto, with the previously known state-of-the-art Jacquard machines, it was necessary for the previously discussed reasons to have the action of the punching needles 1 or 2 against the rod legs 8 or 9 last for a longer period of time, so that for the raising and lowering of the needle board or plate 62 and for the analogous turning or indexing of a Jacquard card there was only left 160 crank angle, or 45 percent of its revolution.

The reasons discussed above render it possible for the operating speeds of such inventive Jacquard machines to be considerably increased. Previously known Jacquard machines, at best, work with 240 strokes or lifts per lift blade per minute. The above-described Jacquard loom operates at 600 lifts of the lift blade per minute, and then still in a faultless manner. With such type operating speeds, it is necessary to replace the heretofore conventional weights which downwardly pull the cords 7 by resilient elements or elastic tensioning devices, since the acceleration of the rods or bars is greater than the acceleration due to gravity.

While there is shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims. ACCORDINGLY,

What is claimed is:

1. An open shed double lift-Jacquard loom, comprising lifting blades and open shed blades, a plurality of rod means each possessing two resilient leg members positioned to cooperate with said blades, each leg member being equipped with two tongues respectively cooperating with an associated lifting blade and an open shed blade, a drive mechanism and guide means provided for the open shed blades for moving said open shed blades alternately at an inclination up and down with respect to said rod means, so that the rod means remaining in the open shed position always come into engagement with an associated open shed blade, and punching needles arranged transverse to said leg members of said rod means for selectively acting upon the individual leg members, guide rails as sociated with said leg members of said rod means, said guide rails being movable transverse to said leg members and acting alternately upon the free ends of said leg members, said guide rails retaining the leg members of said rod means remaining in the upper shed position in an engaged position with the associated lifting blades thereof at the side of the associated lifting blade which is ascending into the upper position, and guide rail-drive means for moving said guide rails prior to reaching the upper position of the upwardly moving lifting blades towards such associated upwardly moving lifting blades and away from the lifting blades moving downwardly.

2. The loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said resilient leg members are pro-stressed in a direction away from said lifting blades, and stationary stop means for limiting the spacing of i said leg members from one another at the region of the free leg ends.

3. The machine as defined in claim 2, wherein said lifting blades and said open shed blades are arranged between said leg members of said rod means.

4. The machine as defined In claim 1, wherein said guide means for the open shed blades defines a guide path which possesses a substantially circular arc-shaped configuration. 

1. An open shed double lift-Jacquard loom, comprising lifting blades and open shed blades, a plurality of rod means each possessing two resilient leg members positioned to cooperate with said blades, each leg member being equipped with two tongues respectively cooperating with an associated lifting blade and an open shed blade, a drive mechanism and guide means provided for the open shed blades for moving said open shed blades alternately at an inclination up and down with respect to said rod means, so that the rod means remaining in the open shed position always come into engagement with an associated open shed blade, and punching needles arranged transverse to said leg members of said rod means for selectively acting upon the individual leg members, guide rails associated with said leg members of said rod means, said guide rails being movable transverse to said leg members and acting alternately upon the free ends of said leg members, said guide rails retaining the leg members of said rod means remaining in the upper sheD position in an engaged position with the associated lifting blades thereof at the side of the associated lifting blade which is ascending into the upper position, and guide rail-drive means for moving said guide rails prior to reaching the upper position of the upwardly moving lifting blades towards such associated upwardly moving lifting blades and away from the lifting blades moving downwardly.
 2. The loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said resilient leg members are pre-stressed in a direction away from said lifting blades, and stationary stop means for limiting the spacing of said leg members from one another at the region of the free leg ends.
 3. The machine as defined in claim 2, wherein said lifting blades and said open shed blades are arranged between said leg members of said rod means.
 4. The machine as defined in claim 1, wherein said guide means for the open shed blades defines a guide path which possesses a substantially circular arc-shaped configuration. 